mykiwi/mykiwi.blog · d59cce3

⑂ d59cce3

Track feed readers with a campaign tag and a pixel

Feed readers send no referrer and run no JavaScript. Tag each item link with utm_campaign=rss so clicks land under GoatCounter's Campaigns, and end each item's description with a tracking pixel. The guid keeps the bare permalink.

Romain Gautier committed 2026-09-25T00:00:49+02:00 Browse files

d59cce3 parent: c6cef41

modified blog/layouts/_default/rss.xml +16 -4 Viewed

@@ -1,14 +1,21 @@
1	1	{{- /*
2	2	A copy of Hugo's embedded rss.xml (tpl/tplimpl/embedded/templates/rss.xml,
3	3	v0.166.0) kept deliberately close to it, so a future Hugo's version can be
4		- diffed against this one. Three things are ours:
	4	+ diffed against this one. Five things are ours:
5	5
6	6	1. the <?xml-stylesheet?> below, which asks a browser to render the feed
7	7	through feed.xsl instead of showing its tag tree;
8	8	2. the <script>, which does the same job for browsers that no longer run
9	9	XSLT - see the note in hugo.toml;
10	10	3. the channel <description>, which said "Recent content on mykiwi.blog"
11		- and now says what the site's own <meta name="description"> says.
	11	+ and now says what the site's own <meta name="description"> says;
	12	+ 4. each item's <link> carries ?utm_campaign=rss, which GoatCounter files
	13	+ under Campaigns - a feed reader sends no referrer, so those clicks
	14	+ would otherwise all be "(unknown)". The <guid> stays the bare
	15	+ permalink: changing it would mark every post as new in every reader;
	16	+ 5. a GoatCounter tracking pixel at the end of each item's description.
	17	+ Readers run no JavaScript, so count.js never sees them; an <img> is
	18	+ the one thing many of them do fetch. See the note where it is built.
12	19
13	20	Both files are home-page outputs, so a section feed (posts/index.xml) has to
14	21	reach across to site.Home for them rather than ask its own .OutputFormats.
@@ -59,6 +66,11 @@
59	66	{{- else }}
60	67	{{- $pages = $pctx.Pages }}
61	68	{{- end }}
	69	+{{- /* Same host-then-path shape as baseof.html's window.goatcounter.path, so
	70	+ the feed shows up in GoatCounter next to the pages of the language it is
	71	+ the feed for. Only readers that load remote images are counted, once per
	72	+ item they display, so this is a floor and not a subscriber count. */}}
	73	+{{- $pixel := printf "<img src=\"https://stats.mykiwi.blog/count?p=%s/feed\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\">" (urls.Parse site.Home.Permalink).Host }}
62	74	{{- $limit := .Site.Config.Services.RSS.Limit }}
63	75	{{- if ge $limit 1 }}
64	76	{{- $pages = $pages \| first $limit }}
@@ -109,11 +121,11 @@
109	121	{{- range $pages }}
110	122	<item>
111	123	<title>{{ .Title }}</title>
112		- <link>{{ .Permalink }}</link>
	124	+ <link>{{ .Permalink }}?utm_campaign=rss</link>
113	125	<pubDate>{{ .PublishDate.Format "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" \| safeHTML }}</pubDate>
114	126	{{- with $authorEmail }}<author>{{ . }}{{ with $authorName }} ({{ . }}){{ end }}</author>{{ end }}
115	127	<guid>{{ .Permalink }}</guid>
116		- <description>{{ .Summary \| transform.XMLEscape \| safeHTML }}</description>
	128	+ <description>{{ printf "%s%s" .Summary $pixel \| transform.XMLEscape \| safeHTML }}</description>
117	129	</item>
118	130	{{- end }}
119	131	</channel>

  {{- /*
    A copy of Hugo's embedded rss.xml (tpl/tplimpl/embedded/templates/rss.xml,
    v0.166.0) kept deliberately close to it, so a future Hugo's version can be
--  diffed against this one. Three things are ours:
++  diffed against this one. Five things are ours:
 . the <?xml-stylesheet?> below, which asks a browser to render the feed
         through feed.xsl instead of showing its tag tree;
 . the <script>, which does the same job for browsers that no longer run
         XSLT - see the note in hugo.toml;
 . the channel <description>, which said "Recent content on mykiwi.blog"
--       and now says what the site's own <meta name="description"> says.
++       and now says what the site's own <meta name="description"> says;
++    4. each item's <link> carries ?utm_campaign=rss, which GoatCounter files
++       under Campaigns - a feed reader sends no referrer, so those clicks
++       would otherwise all be "(unknown)". The <guid> stays the bare
++       permalink: changing it would mark every post as new in every reader;
++    5. a GoatCounter tracking pixel at the end of each item's description.
++       Readers run no JavaScript, so count.js never sees them; an <img> is
++       the one thing many of them do fetch. See the note where it is built.
    Both files are home-page outputs, so a section feed (posts/index.xml) has to
    reach across to site.Home for them rather than ask its own .OutputFormats.
  {{- else }}
  	{{- $pages = $pctx.Pages }}
  {{- end }}
++{{- /* Same host-then-path shape as baseof.html's window.goatcounter.path, so
++  the feed shows up in GoatCounter next to the pages of the language it is
++  the feed for. Only readers that load remote images are counted, once per
++  item they display, so this is a floor and not a subscriber count. */}}
++{{- $pixel := printf "<img src=\"https://stats.mykiwi.blog/count?p=%s/feed\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\">" (urls.Parse site.Home.Permalink).Host }}
  {{- $limit := .Site.Config.Services.RSS.Limit }}
  {{- if ge $limit 1 }}
  	{{- $pages = $pages | first $limit }}
  		{{- range $pages }}
  			<item>
  				<title>{{ .Title }}</title>
--				<link>{{ .Permalink }}</link>
++				<link>{{ .Permalink }}?utm_campaign=rss</link>
  				<pubDate>{{ .PublishDate.Format "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" | safeHTML }}</pubDate>
  				{{- with $authorEmail }}<author>{{ . }}{{ with $authorName }} ({{ . }}){{ end }}</author>{{ end }}
  				<guid>{{ .Permalink }}</guid>
--				<description>{{ .Summary | transform.XMLEscape | safeHTML }}</description>
++				<description>{{ printf "%s%s" .Summary $pixel | transform.XMLEscape | safeHTML }}</description>
  			</item>
  		{{- end }}
  	</channel>